Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Writing Question

Christmas at Santa's Workship at the Edsel Ford House in Michigan. Their daughter's playhouse is big enough to live in save for the low ceilings which my son managed to bump his head on three times.

Does this happen to you, writer friends? It only happens to me when I try to take a real story and fictionalize it.

I have a story I'm working on now that can be a flash piece if I stick to the facts; it can be a 2000 word story if I give them more nuance and texture; it can be a 4000 word story if I fill in the background more. And, of course, it can be a novel if I wanted to torture myself for a year again.

Flash pieces have become more attractive of late since there are more outlets for them.

Now it probably should be a novel, but I am not going there. So how do you know what length is right for a story? Especially if it's based on real events and could be as long as you liked.

Do you always know how long a story will be when you start to write it?

8 comments:

That's a good question. I was about to say I don't know, but realized I do. Some strange thought process seems to automatically categorize story ideas as I think of them. "This is a flash idea." "Novel." "Flash." It's rare for me t change my mind, though I have written a flash story or three that I could use as a chapter in a novel.

I think this usually happens because I tend to think of ideas from the other direction. "I need a flash idea," or, "I need an idea for a novel." Once I put idea and form together, I think of them as a unit.

It's taken me a long time, but I've learned over the years to allow the story to be what it needs to be. When I first started writing every piece I wrote was flash, now I have to make a conscious effort to keep it short and concise.

As for writing real life, I've given that up except for bits and pieces, or just using the real as a framework for the fiction. Most of real is too unbelievable to be fiction. :)

Trying to stick to the facts, pretty much ruins the spontaneity of the story, at least for me. You wind up controlling the characters and the situations instead of letting the story breathe.

That's not to say it can't be done and done well. I think you just have to find that place where the characters tell the story and you just get out of their way. A matter of not listening to that little voice that's reminding you that's not the way it happened. Something I haven't managed to get past yet with real stories. :)

About Me

Patricia Abbott is the author of more than 125 stories that have appeared online, in print journals and in various anthologies. She is the author of two print novels CONCRETE ANGEL (2015) and SHOT IN DETROIT (2016)(Polis Books). CONCRETE ANGEL was nominated for an Anthony and Macavity Award in 2016. SHOT IN DETROIT was nominated for an Edgar Award and an Anthony Award in 2017. A collection of her stories I BRING SORROW AND OTHER STORIES OF TRANSGRESSION will appear in 2018.